Category: Investment

There is a business quote which is very common with successful entrepreneurs. They state that you should take care of your employees, because they are the direct link to your customer, and they get to decide how the customer will feel about your brand. Louis Chenevert,a renowned business leader, an entrepreneur seems to read from the same school of thought. He states that there is no better way to bolster your business success than working on your current employees. He adds that when a company has a low turnover rate, it has a higher possibility of meeting its growth goals.

Creating the optimal workplace is not as hard as many bosses believe. The first thing that you need to remember as a boss is that it is possible tocreate an optimal workplace, as long as you are willing to make changes which will make the employees enjoy spending their time in the given workplace. He adds that fostering positive relationships and avoiding poor leadership styles such as divide and rule, always works in making a perfect workplace.

The other recommendation which he makes about improving the workplace is that there is no better way to encourage employees to stay on and work hard than to have awards for the ones who do well. He stated that while there are cynics who will laugh at concepts such as the employee of the month, it makes everyone have something to look forward to as they set their work goals.

The third way which Louis Chenevert recommendsto try and improve the workplace is investing in the academic and professional development of the employee. One of the best ways to do this is creating employee scholarship programs such as the one that he initiated in his company, UTC. He states that after the program was introduced, more of his employees felt encouraged about staying on and improving themselves. When they got higher qualifications, they would get promoted within the organization, which encourages the others to work hard and get the same benefits. These are the types of incentives which support business growth.

Serge Belamant was born in France in 1953 and moved to South Africa when he was 14 years old. He attended the Witwatersrand University in 1972 and initially studied engineering before switching to computer science and applied mathematics. He discontinued his studied after 2 years and started taking courses in information system through UNISA.

With an interesting career path, Serge Belamant has a number of patents to his name. In 1989, after he completed the development and implemented the SASWITCH system, he conceptualized the first RSA POS system, which was based on a network of X.25 workstations that were interconnected. Due to the fact it was not implemented by the banks at that time, Serge Belamant chose to leave SASWITCH and established his own company. He founded Net1, in 1989.

In the first few years of its existence, Net1 tried to provide to various institutions, such as banks, its UEPS system. Through Net1, Serge Belamant owns the patents to a verification of a transactor’s identity system and a financial transaction with a varying PIN system. Visa entered into an agreement with Net1 in 1995 allowing Serge Belamant to design and also develop COPAC, a new Visa application – the Chip Offline Pre-Authorised Card uses FTS/UEPS technology.

The founder of Net1 is also responsible for developing the technology for the Blockchain Smart Card, Net1 being the only company with the technology that allows them to provide the lowest cost banking services for a specific demographic of unbanked and under-banked. Back in 2016, World Bank invested a total of $107 million into Net1, being the largest fintech investment that the bank ever made in order to help promote financial inclusion for the poor. World Bank recognized that it was the only technology with a proven track record that can work on a large scale.

The blockchain smart card offered by Net1 is on all UEPS cards, including the EPE (EasyPay Everywhere) account. The EPE cards work on a transactional account designed to serve the needs of the unbanked and under-banked population of South Africa. The accounts work online, on mobile devices, and with the EPE smart card.

Mike Bagguley is thenew chief operating officer of the investment banking unit at Barclays. The step to appoint Bagguley to this position came as part of the plan by the bank to beef up its investment banking operations. Barclays was once booming with investment businesses but lost its way leading to a significant decline in investment banking operations. With the new appointment, Barclays is hoping to get operations back to normalcy; like it was during the past glory days. Before the promotion, Mike Bagguley was working as the head of macro markets divisionat the bank. He will be working under Tom King, the chief executive of the investment unit.

Mr. Bagguley was promoted after recording impressive results in his former position. He helped the bank reshape macro business in areas of interest rates, commodities products, and foreign exchange. These changes were necessary since the bank had to move with speed to implement measures that would get the bank back to profitability after suffering from tough regulations in the banking sectorand a decline in trading revenue. From the statement released by the bank, Mike Baggley will be responsible for the coordination of projects in the investment unit.

The appointment of Mr. Bagguley came after a streak of changes in senior management of the bank. Earlier, Sir Gerry Grimstone was appointed as the deputy chairman. Grimstone is an experienced financial expert who has previously worked with financial group Schroders as the global vice-chairman of in-charge of investment activities. Other appointments have been made in the investment banking unit as Barclays shows commitment to re-position itself as a leading investment bank in the world.

Barclays’ senior management has full confidence in Mike Bagguley to accelerate delivery of the goals they have set to accomplish. Bagguley experience as a senior banker will help him put together key infrastructure to achieve growth within a short time.

Mike Bagguley has been at Barclays since 2001. His roles have mainly been around fixed income operations. He has previously been assigned duties in Johannesburg, Tokyo, London and New York. He finally joins the investment banking unit as the COO to replace Justin Bull who left in April.